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etween culture and translation
Language is a part of culture. It plays an important role in culture. Idioms are heavily culturally loaded phrases and sentences. Idioms are the essence of language as they carry distinctive cultural features. Language is inseparable from culture so that translation is inseparable from culture. Translation is not only word-to-word process, but also the culture-to-culture process. American translator, E.A Nida holds: “translation is the communication of two cultures.” To these successful translators, understanding about the difference of the two cultures is more important than the mastering of the two languages. Idiom has its own meaning in a certain cultural backgrounds. In the process of translating, we often come across some idioms with distinctive cultural characteristics. So it is a very important and complicated thing for us to understand and use these 本论文由英语论文网 www.51lunwen.org整理提供idioms correctly. It is necessary for us to study the cultural differences in some fields between China and Western countries.
III. The cultural elements in Chinese idioms translation
A. Different religions and beliefs
As a cultural phenomenon, religion, which is the manifestation of different cultures, is the vital part of human thought. China is a multi-religious country. Buddhism has a greatest influence on Chinese people. Chinese people have been deeply influenced by Buddhism, in which “佛” is worshiped. There are numerous heavily culturally loaded idioms in Chinese, such as 放下屠刀，立地成佛 (A butcher becomes a Buddha the moment he drops his cleaver), 救人一命胜造七级浮屠( To save a human life is better than building a seven-storeyed pagoda ),借花献佛 (To present Buddha with borrowed flowers), 五体投地 (To throw oneself down at somebody’s feet in admiration), 平时不烧香，临时抱佛脚 (Neglect to burn one’s joss stick before an idol in terms of peace, then embrace the Buddha’s feet in a crisis). Here the words with emphasized symbols, such as “出家”，“成佛”etc. belong to those derived from the activities of Buddhism in China. Besides, to the ordinary Chinese, Heaven is the supreme ruler of the world. All happenings on the earth are believed to be controlled and arranged by Heaven, hence it gives the following idioms: 生死由命，富贵在天 (Life and death are decreed by fate, rank and riches determined by heaven), 天理不容 (Heaven will not tolerate injustice), 天生我才必有用 (There must be some use for the talent Heaven granted me). In contrast to the Chinese, most of the westerners are Christians, who believe that the world was created by God, and everything in the world is arranged and disposed of according to God’s will. For example: 自助者天助 (God helps those help themselves), because the different religions and beliefs lead to the different idioms translation.
B. Different traditions and customs
Culture is long aquired from customs and habits. These customs and habits are representative of the way of living of a certain speech community and they are mirrored in the habitual speaking of the language. In China, most of the area especially the south grow rice, so many idioms have to do with rice ：巧妇难为无米之炊 (Even the cleverest housewife can not cook a meal without rice), 茶余饭后 (Over a cup of tea or after dinner---at one’s leisure).China has a long history of cooking. There are many idioms about cooking, such as 家常便饭 (daily food preparation), 粗茶淡饭 (coarse tea and brown rice), 画饼充饥 (to draw cakes to allay hunger). The idiom 吃人的嘴软 (Once you have accepted somebody’s invitation